A line of severe thunderstorms had just rumbled through Silvis, Illinois on a hot June Sunday morning. The clouds parted and the sky quickly filled with billowing smoke and steam from an idling locomotive preparing for its last run. No, this was not 1953 when the last Rock Island steam locomotive dropped its fire for the final time. This was June 12, 2022, and Iowa Interstate’s QJ-6988 was getting ready to highball eastbound with freight train SIBU-12 to Bureau Junction.

This trip was to be memorable but bittersweet, for in just a few hours, QJ-6988’s flue time would expire and the fire would be dropped for the last time for quite awhile. “Going into hibernation,” as one railfan put it. Actually, the locomotive’s flue time had already expired, but its owner, the Central States Steam Preservation Association (CSSPA), had been granted a small extension on the flue time by the Federal Railroad Administration, allowing for one final farewell run.